1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for making an improved snack food and more particularly to a method for making a vacuum baked fruit and/or vegetable based snack food piece.
2. Description of Related Art
Snack pieces such as potato chips and corn based snack chips and wafers are popular consumer items for which there exists a great demand. Potato chips have a crispy texture and can be prepared by cooking slices of whole potatoes. Snack chips can also be created by using potato flakes or corn masa, water and other ingredients to create a starchy dough. The dough is sheeted, cut into pieces of a desired shape, and cooked. The dough is compressed between a pair of counter rotating rollers that are located closely together, thereby providing a pinch point through which the dough is formed into sheets and cut into a desired shape. After the dough is cut into pieces, the pieces are transported towards and through an oven or fryer, which cooks the pieces. The snack pieces are then sent to be packaged. Other types of snack foods, such as corn based wafers, are sometimes thicker and less dense than potato chips, but still have a crispy texture.
Although prior snack chips and wafers are popular and healthy snack items, offering snack pieces that incorporate alternative vegetables and fruits could provide consumers with nutritional benefits that are different from those provided by potatoes and corn. Fruits and non-potato vegetables are generally good sources of vitamins, minerals and other healthy compounds such as anti-oxidants. Different fruits and vegetables are rich in different nutrients, and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommends consumption of between 5 and 13 servings of a variety of fruit and vegetables per day, depending on the specific individual's needs. According to the Food and Drug Administration, a diet that is high in fiber can reduce a person's risk of certain cancers, diabetes, digestive disorders, and heart diseases, as well as aid weight management. Furthermore, vitamins and minerals are widely recognized as part of a healthy diet, and antioxidants may reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. Therefore, offering consumers snack items that incorporate fruits and vegetables other than potatoes will be an improvement in the art because consumers will be able to choose from a variety of different snack foods that offer nutritional benefits that differ from those offered by traditional potato chips and corn based snack chips and wafers.
However, prior ail fruit and vegetable snack foods generally take the form of dehydrated slices of whole fruits or vegetables. These prior art dehydrated slices are typically chewy and tough, and do not have the crispy, crunchy texture desired by consumers for snack items. Furthermore, it has proven difficult in the prior art to provide fabricated snack products that are not nutritionally different from traditional potato chips and corn-based snack wafers. Consequently, the need exists for a fruit or vegetable based snack piece with a crispy, crunchy texture.